<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Word Of The Day: Photosynthesis! by CowgayKermit</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24117796">Word Of The Day: Photosynthesis!</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CowgayKermit/pseuds/CowgayKermit'>CowgayKermit</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Family Bonding, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Klaus uses They/Them, Non-Binary Klaus Hargreeves, Not Beta Read, Unreliable Narrator</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:07:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,065</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24117796</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CowgayKermit/pseuds/CowgayKermit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sir Reginald Hargreeves bought many things before he died. A few examples: a rundown umbrella factory, seven babies, many books, empty notebooks and pens, and a lake house. </p>
<p>Well now it's their lake house. And it was time for a vacation.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>91</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Word Of The Day: Photosynthesis!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i got real obsessed with the word photosynthesis the other day</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Diego finally found them, he had looked everywhere. Checked Klaus’s room four times, kitchen, all the bathrooms, the many sitting rooms, the green house, even Reggie’s office, but no; they were in their room, under a desk made for a child. Diego stood, bewildered, at seeing Klaus folded in on themself like that. He had forgotten why he was looking for his sibling, noting how it looked like Klaus had slept there.</p><p>Diego wondered why they would have slept there instead of their bed, or why, the four previous times when Diego was in the room looking for them, Klaus didn’t acknowledge him.</p><p>Before Diego could say anything, Klaus said, “We should do a family vaca at the lake house.” As if this wasn’t a confusing and wild statement for them to make. The family didn’t have a lake house. Maybe they had dreamed up the lake house? They were just confused and waking up, which was why when Diego had checked their room previously they hadn’t spoken up and acknowledged Diego’s presence, <i>obviously</i>.</p><p>However, Diego was certain that Klaus hadn’t actually just woken up and just kept silent when the room had been checked, but he <i>hoped</i> for the former idea. “What lake house?”</p><p>“Dad has one. I once spent two weeks there. A family had been brutally murdered. An ax, I think. It’s not haunted B-T-Ws. Pissed ol’ Reggie off to find that one out.” Klaus hadn’t moved to get out from under the desk. They were holding a stuffed toy that probably at one point had drugs in it. Hopefully no longer. “Every so often he took me there, hoping that this time it would be haunted but I didn’t get to stay the night when he did that. We just spent the day in silence in the sitting room. Ever have a staring contest with him? I did. I won every time.” Klaus paused before seemingly trying to shrug but with how they were pretzeled under the desk it was hard to see, “Not sure if he was aware of the staring contests.”</p><p>“You want to come out from under there?” Diego asked hesitantly when it looked as if Klaus wasn’t going to move. </p><p>“Not really,” Klaus said, “but I guess.” They sighed loudly and flopped over, landing outside of the desk. They stretched on the floor and looked up at Diego, “I can see up your nose.”</p><p>Diego rolled his eyes and held out a hand to help his sibling up. Klaus held up both hands and made a grabby motion as if a child asking to be picked up instead of just taking Diego’s hand. Scoffing, Diego took his hand back and crossed his arms. He wasn’t going to pick up his sibling off the ground like they were a baby.</p><p>“Boo, you whore,” Klaus said, pushing themself up and using Diego’s body as a grip. Once they were standing next to Diego, hands on his shoulders, they turned Diego to face him head on and said, “I almost snorted dad’s ashes.”</p><p>Diego really didn’t know how to respond to that.</p><p>So he patted Klaus on the shoulder, “I’m not as surprised as I should be.”</p><p>Klaus beamed at him. “Let’s go tell the others about our vaca at the lake house.” They started to walk away, moving a little funny, as if one of their legs was asleep.</p><p>Diego followed slowly, worried he’d have to reach out and catch his sibling when Klaus’s asleep leg gave out or started doing pins and needles, “Who says he still has it and didn’t just sell it?”</p><p>“Please, as if dad would get rid of anything after he bought it. Greedy dead bastard,” Klaus said. “Bought all of us and never threw any of us out. If he was going to sell anything it would’ve been me. I was more of a disappointing purchase than a house that wasn’t haunted. Got himself a haunted kid though.”</p><p>Diego paused, “Wait, that Game Boy you had as a kid--”</p><p>“Oh yeah, I got dad to buy that for me because I claimed it was haunted. Eventually he took it from me and smashed it with his stupid cain in front of me when he realized I duped him,” Klaus waggled their eyebrows and grinned happily, clearly proud of tricking Reggie even though they got caught. </p><p>On their way downstairs they ran into Pogo walking the other way, he gave them both a respectful nod while passing when Klaus reached out and touched Pogo’s shoulder. “Pogo, my man, I gotta <i>ax</i> you a question. We still have that very chill lake house? The not haunted murder shack? My fav vaca place daddy dragged me too? Because, listen, the mausoleum was not a good vaca spot. The room service was <i>terrible</i>.”</p><p>“I believe you are speaking of the Summerland House,” Pogo replied. “Yes, we do still own the property. The caretaker there has been making sure it’s still in good shape. I’ve been told the lilacs are in full bloom at the moment.”</p><p>“Great!” Klaus clapped their hands together, “We’re gonna take like a week and stay there. Does the caretaker live there? Or just stop by? Will they be there too? They can join us! We can all make s’mores together!”</p><p>“Miss Wilmer does not live there, no. She comes a few times a week. I shall inform her that she can take a week off,” Pogo said. Giving a smile, he added, “I believe this will be good for you children.”</p><p>“Wait, so we do own a murder house?” Diego asked, taken aback.</p><p>“I didn’t lie about that!” Klaus said with a light glare. “I know I lie <i>a lot</i> but like, I’m trying not to as much.”</p><p>Diego nodded. Klaus had said they were trying to lie less. The rest of the family had smiled hesitantly when they announced that, not fully believing them. It would be nice of Klaus to cut back on the lying but none of them really thought that they’d be able to do it. They had always been a bit of a liar, even before the drugs and drinking. Pogo and Grace always said Klaus was just fibbing or telling stories, not lying. It was really disappointing when they would call Klaus out on their lies and they just doubled down on them, saying they weren’t lying, it was true, it was all true.</p><p>But maybe they didn’t lie as often as everyone thought-- maybe there was more truth to what they said--</p><p>“Wait, you mentioned vacationing in a mausoleum?” Diego wondered if that had been a lie or not. The house was real so did that mean the mausoleum was too? </p><p>Klaus looked down at their bare wrist, “<i>Oh look at the time</i>, we must be off and inform everyone of our vacation to Summerland. We can’t waste any time, brother!” They then quickly turned and almost ran down the hallway, away from Diego.</p><p>Diego glanced to Pogo who watched Klaus run away with sad eyes.</p><p>
  <i>Shit the mausoleum was real?</i>
</p><p>By the time Diego caught back up with Klaus, they had somehow gathered everyone in the main sitting room, where they had their family meetings. How they managed to gather everyone so quickly was impressive as most of the time not everyone was at the Academy, let alone willing to stop what they were doing in order to have a meeting. </p><p>“<i>Diego!</i> There you are! You are late, <i>rude</i>. You knew about this meeting before anyone else and you <i>still</i> can’t be on time? Kept all of us waiting. <i>Tsk, tsk,</i>” Klaus was using larger than usual arm movements when talking. Were they overcompensating for mentioning the mausoleum? Being extra dramatic so that they could hide their pain? Diego knew they hadn’t had an easy life, he knew what tended to happen to homeless addicts; he wasn’t dumb. He’d always pretended to believe that none of that happened to his sibling, but this was an act Diego had seen again and again. He’d gotten to know Klaus a lot better recently, like he thought he knew them when they were all kids and the drama they were bringing into their conversation was a bit more than a normal day. <i>As if a mask.</i> How often did they mask their pain like this? Like a stage magician making them look at the beautiful assistant. Only Klaus was both the magician and the assistant.</p><p>Diego sat down next to Five who was nursing a drink from the bar. He didn’t miss how Klaus’s eyes kept glancing at it. He should really talk to Five about drinking around Klaus. At least hide it better, put his scotch in a coffee cup or something. “I already know what you’re going to say, you could have started without me.”</p><p>Klaus did finger guns at him before spreading their arms out wide, “We own a lake house near Summerland and I think we should take a vaca there. This ol’ museum here is all musty and full of bad memories and we need to spend some time at a goddamn lake house. We’d have to share rooms as it’s like, a three bedroom, not a six-- <i>No Ben, you don’t get a bedroom, you don’t sleep.</i> But it’s pretty and it’s got a lake and it’s ghost free. Other than Ben, when he joins us-- <i>Yes, just because you don’t get a bedroom doesn’t mean you aren’t invited.</i>”</p><p>Diego looked around and the others seemed like they might not agree with the vacation idea. He wasn’t sure if it was a good one or not, all of them stuck in a lake house together, but based on what he saw of Klaus that day, how they’d been sleeping under a desk, how they mentioned a mausoleum, maybe they needed a vacation. Before anyone could speak up against the idea, Diego said, “That sounds really nice, Klaus. Spending some time at a lake house will probably be really great.”</p><p>Klaus turned and grinned at him, bouncing on their toes a bit before giving a bow, “Thank you, Di!”</p><p>While Klaus was bowing and not looking, Diego sent a glare at the rest, to get them to agree. Maybe they saw through their sibling’s mask, maybe not, but he hoped they understood what his glare meant. </p><p>Allison seemed to pick up on either Klaus’s mood or the glare because she was nodding, “It could do us some good, a little vacation. And we own this lake house?”</p><p>Klaus nodded, smile light on their face, “Yes! I checked with Pogo, we still own it and there is a caretaker so it’s still in good shape. I haven’t been there since before I left so there had been a chance it’d turned into a dump but apparently not.”</p><p>“You’ve been there?” Luther asked slowly, confused.</p><p>“Yeah, dad was always taking me to places that could be haunted. As said, this one isn’t. <i>Thank fuck.</i> But it’s still a really nice place! We can make s’mores! And do lake house things. A little change of pace for us could be good,” Klaus was still trying to talk people into it even though Diego and Allison already agreed. And if Allison agreed then Luther did and four votes in favor of a vacation would be enough for them all to go.</p><p>“That sounds good, Klaus,” Vanya agreed. “We should pick out the dates so I can take time off work and let people know.”</p><p>Five downed his glass of alcohol, “Sure. Why not? I could take a break as well.”</p><p>So they all discussed when they wanted to leave, giving enough time for people with jobs to take some time off and for them to pack for a week-long vacation. Summerland wasn’t too far from the city, but far enough that they’d spend the morning driving there so there was even talk of renting a minivan instead of taking a few different cars. </p><p>Diego had first agreed to the idea because it seemed like Klaus needed the vacation, but as the date of it approached, he began to think that it was a very good idea for all of them. Everyone was getting excited, coming up with some ideas they could do during the week, planning out activities or meals. </p><p>It would be a good week.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>